Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成) was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read today. Nobel Lecture: 1968 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prize...
Mahime (Dancing Girls) really is a lesser novel than Yasunari Kawabata's other major works. Still it is interesting to see how Mr. Kawabata reacted to the post WWII situation in Japan (the occupy of the UN and the USA, the threat of the Korea War, the Westernization, etc) In this respect, I guess this novel reads like it is kind of Mr. Kawabata's version of Paradise Lost.
On the smaller schedule of things, this novel reveals the eventual unraveling of a family of four (quite a number of extra martial affairs and unrequited love are mentioned), and surprisingly, the 'dancing girls' in the story are referred to ballet dancers instead of the dancers of traditional Japanese dance. A lot of Western art and customs are mentioned in the story, and it is rather interesting to see these characters struggling to find their footing in a quickly changing society.